An indie author’s regular spoiler-free update on his writing, editing, cover design, marketing, publishing, website maintenance, and blogging. Issue 90.
This week in one word: shiny!
my_writing_week
Previously on WWW…
My priorities for the next seven days will be revising The Spike Volume 2 and progressing the cover design for The Spike Volume 1 second edition.
I’ll also continue writing my next blogpost, and want to edit The Spike Volume 0 too.
I’m nearing the end of reading The Poet Empress by Shen Tao so my review will probably go live either late next week or early the week following.That’s too much work for one week so something will inevitably be left for later.
I ended up leaving more for later than I anticipated. I got distracted by a shiny new idea.
The new idea was to combine two ideas I’d already had, Project Fang and Project Lawless, into one super-idea. It would involve writing two books unrelated to The Spike, in tandem, to result in something I haven’t seen done before. It’s really enticing, and one of them is very much linked to current world events, so it would make sense to do it sooner rather than later.
But I don’t want to shove aside The Spike Volume 2 to start this new project. Once I’ve finished this round of revisions, I was going to put Vol2 in a metaphorical drawer for about a month, so when I return to it, it will be with fresh eyes. That gap was originally earmarked for other publication prep, and/or Volume 3 outlining, but would be an opportunity to work on the combined projects.
I can’t go into detail now, but stick around.
One of the other tasks I worked on this week that I also can’t go into detail about was a future blogpost. I wrote in my last WWW that I want to post a series of pieces about my books as part of the publication schedule, so I gathered together the disparate ideas I’d had and began work on one of them. It’s not a high priority right now, but I felt inspired by the subject matter so that’s what I worked on.
Given these distractions, I didn’t revise as much of The Spike Volume 2 as I did last week. Still, I’m now four chapters closer to finishing.
There were no big changes: a couple of continuity errors to fix, and some additional characterisation.
The next few chapters cover one of the major crossover sequences with the other two parts, so I’ll need to ensure they are consistent where they need to be, but different enough to not feel repetitive and boring.
I didn’t do any work on my cover designs this week. After a few weeks of working on them heavily, I felt a break from them would do me good, and benefit them in the long run.
On Tuesday, I posted my review of The Poet Empress by Shen Tao. It was an immediate five-star read for me – for more, see my weekly_inspiration below.
On Friday, I finished reading my 20th book of 2026 so far, Contrapposto by Dave Eggers. The central relationship is a metaphor for artistic purity vs commercial success, which I found really interesting. I’ve begun writing my review, which also includes an analysis of that debate. It should go live Monday/Tuesday next week.
Last Sunday was my 800th consecutive day working on my writing, which is a nice milestone. When I reach 1000, I might need to do something to celebrate…
My latest streak, hitting at least 50% for my creativity vs consumption weekly percentage, ticks up to five weeks. A decrease from 53% to 51% this week, but that still meets the magic 50/50 split so I’ll take it.
I’ve got a lot of spinning plates at the moment. I’d probably benefit from being more focussed, but there are a lot of tasks that need doing before I publish anything, and forcing myself to do something when I’m not feeling like it isn’t conducive to good work. And if this whole process isn’t enjoyable, what’s the point?
Having said that…
I’ll post my review and analysis of Contrapposto by Dave Eggers on Monday or Tuesday, but priority number one for next week is revising The Spike Volume 2.
Reading this week: Contrapposto by Dave Eggers and The Poet Empress by Shen Tao and Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Watching this week: Peaky Blinders season 2 (rewatch) and Schitt’s Creek season 1
Playing this week: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
status_report
In addition to the three short stories available to read for free here, there are three more yet to be published that make up The Spike Volume 0. The new three are in the final stages, and will be available some time before Volume 2 is published.
I’m working on a new cover design for a second edition of The Spike Volume 1, with two different versions being developed in tandem whilst I decide which colour layout I prefer.
I’m also working on covers for the two individual parts, 1.1_Application Infiltration and 1.2_Laying Down The Law, which are going to be published separately for the first time. I want both to have a similar style and layout.
Draft 3 is under way for The Spike Volume 2!
Volume 2 is my biggest and most complex project to date, containing three separate books from the perspectives of seven characters.
The aim is to finish Volume 2 in 2026.
Early brainstorming has been done for The Spike Volume 3. I know how it must begin; I have an ending that I think will be great; and I have a long list of ideas (that keeps growing) to get from one to the other that needs to be whittled down and put in an order. I’m not intending to do much more work on this until revision is complete on Volume 2.
I have other project ideas that I’m going to combine, Project Lawless and Project Fang. They remain under wraps for now.
weekly_inspiration
Every week I share something that’s inspired my creativity.
This week, as mentioned above, I posted my review for The Poet Empress by Shen Tao. Despite warnings I’d read that it was darker than you’d expect, I was still surprised by the places it went. There were some horrible moments, but some real beauty too.
I try not to judge books before the end because so much can change in the finale, but from early on, it was clear this was going to be a high-scoring book. The final chapters solidified that.
It’s not perfect but I only had minor quibbles. It will undoubtedly be near the top of my 2026 rankings at the end of this year.
What’s inspired you this week? Please share in the comments.
See you next week.
Arrowmaker Books 